Scientific Journal Reveiw

The area I found to be most complex was the portion of the article that described the methods the authors took to develop the optimal version of the biodegradable carrier polymer, polylactic acid-p-dioxanone-polyethylene glycol block copolymer (PLA-DX-PEG), which produced the most significant bone growth with the least amount of complications
             However, I do believe that an individual with the proper scientific background and who is knowledgeable in bioengineering would be able to reproduce the work the authors performed since the steps the authors took in their experimentation are described in the article albeit not with full detail.
             Summary of Main Points.
             Bone tissue is able to repair itself with relative ease if the bone fracture isn't severe and proper treatment is obtained. Also if bone is damaged during a bone tumor extraction, it able to heal itself given the extraction isn't large. Many situations, however, arise where the bone isn't able to heal itself properly or efficiently. In cases where bone material is needed to repair damaged bone, two techniques for acquiring the needed bone material are commonly used. Autografts involve obtaining bone from the patient's own body; however, this method limits the amount of bone that is able to be collected. Allografts involve obtaining frozen bone from another person. However, this can cause tissue compatibility problems or disease transfer. Due to the problems inherent to both autografts and allografts, "bone tissue engineering is recently being tried as an alternative method" (Saito 2287).
             Bone morphogenetic protein (BMP), a cytokine, is able to induce bone formation and is key to bone tissue engineering. BMP is able to separate mesenchymal cells into cartilage cells and bone cells and stimulate their reproduction. This all takes place in the body at the bone fracture location without the need to cultivate bone tissue in vitro. It has been shown through animal experimentation that "once the BMP with its appropriate carrier was embedded in the muscle new heterotopic bone with hematopoietic bone marrow and trabecula was seen to be formed" (2288).